Best Years of Your Life
by The Music Woman
Summary: Modern. Okay, so he's ruined a lot of high school experiences for me, but he won't ruin this one for me! See, there's this girl and we're both pretty interested in her, but I'm going to win her. I may not be as popular as him, but I WILL win this round.
1. Prologue

**A/N: My Charlie-centric story, with Charian as the main pairing. Now, before you all yell at me, I LOVE Marold. It is my favorite pairing of all time! However, it's the ONLY pairing on this site, practically and no one has written Charian, so I took it upon myself to write this high school fic.**

High school. Golden experiences. The best years of your life. Yeah, not for me. For every person who enjoys high school, there's someone who has to go through hell for them to be happy. And, unfortunately for me, I was that guy.

Really, all my life he's always gotten the best of the best, but it didn't really bother me until the incident in freshman year that will never be spoken of again. In fact, before then, he was one of my best friends. Him and that other guy he still hangs out with, but after that, I became a loner and they went on with their lives as if I were never a part of them.

But he still continued ruining things for me, just like when we had been friends.

I have a pile of stories of things he screwed up for me and I could list them off the top of my head on a moment's notice, exactly how they happened. It had all happened when we first became friends, way back in day care…

I was three years old. Yes, he began ruining my life when I was _three_. All right, anyway, u was three years old and was sweeter than I am now. I was so excited about finally getting to be with other kids my age, because I had never really gotten to play with very many people before.

At that age, your best friend is usually the first person who talks to you. Well, it was just my luck that it happened to be _him_.

"Hi!" he had chirped. He had been so innocent and friendly then, just like me.

"Hi," I had responded almost shyly. "My name is Charlie Cowell."

"My name's Harold Hill and this is Marcellus Washburn!" He grabbed another boy out of the crowd of three year olds and thus we became best friends.

Things were going great until it was playtime, and then things went from good to bad. Marcellus and a girl named Ethel decided they were married and were playing with toy cars, while Harold and I stacked some blocks. Suddenly, Ethel picked up a red truck and Harold hopped up and stormed over to her, saying, "That's mine!"

Ethel merely stuck out her tongue and Harold glared, crossing his arms. "Give to me!" She shook her head furiously and he glared even harder. "Give it!"

"No!"

"Charlie!" My head snapped up. "Go get the truck for me!" At that time, I was so innocent that I thought since my friend told me to do it, I would be a bad friend if I didn't. So, I got up, marched over, and yanked the red truck right out of Ethel Tofflemier's hands.

Her innocent brown eyes grew wide and filled with tears, a truly heartbreaking expression. I instantly felt guilty and felt even worse when she started wailing. One of the teachers ran over and asked what was wrong.

She pointed to me and cried, "He took the truck from me!"

"Charlie, we need to learn how to share! Please sit in the corner until you've learned your lesson!"

Humiliated, I ambled to the corner, and sat down, catching site of Ethel sticking her tongue out at me and Marcellus looking confused (it wouldn't be the only time I saw him look like that).

So that was where it all started and it only got worse from there on out. Stealing my snack in kindergarten, making me look guilty for mischief that was made when we were supposed to be taking naps, getting picked for all the teams because he told them all he was much better than me, copying my homework and somehow making me end up the one guilty of cheating, and many other things that really just plain ruined my childhood.

Plus, the incident in freshman year that we will never speak of again.

But now it was my junior year and things were no better for me. I was still playing second fiddle to him, but I wasn't innocent enough to see him all I friend, so I mostly kept to myself, constantly making revenge plots that I would probably never carry out.

Enter the one person who would change all of that.

**A/N: I expect the chapters to be longer than this prologue, but we'll see. I'm still working on outlining it, so we'll know when the time comes. Feel free to review!**


	2. Chapter 1

**A/N: An update at last. I started outlining this, but I still have no idea where to go with it. I'm torn between writing a slew of Music Man fics or a bunch of dramatic crossovers. I might actually end up putting some Naruto fanfiction on this account.**

All of the details I'm going to tell you about this girl's life, I only learned from her. I can't say that they're true, but I'm gonna trust that they are because she's not the type to make up lies like that.

~X~

Marian Paroo was finally, _finally_, getting her longtime wish. After all those years at the private academy, she was finally starting fresh at a public school, away from those mean girls and nasty rumors. She would begin a new chapter in her life at none other than River City High. She was almost excited on her first day as she walked in.

Meanwhile, I was glowering as the almighty Harold Hill made his grand entrance with his sidekick right behind. The fangirls swooned, his five bajillion friends all asked about his summer, and every single girl tried to get his attention. A typical day.

A crowd was gathered around him, as per usual, reminding me just how popular he was and just how much I hated this guy. Then the doors opened again and _she_ made her grand entrance.

Beautiful. Not hot, nor sexy, nor anything else most guys see. She was medium height, average weight, with blonde hair in a bun, and was, like I said, beautiful. I took in every single detail I could see from the distance I was at, and then repeated the process, not quite able to stop looking at her, stop staring at this new girl.

I wasn't the only one staring. River City high doesn't see many new students, because it's a pretty small town and most people don't move here. There was a private school, Madison Academy, built by some rich guy, and our public school. Obviously this girl was a transfer from the academy because if someone had moved here, everyone would have heard about it.

The crowd parted to let her through and as I watched her walk towards, then past me and I was able to examine every little detail, right down to the last button on her shirt, I knew that this was the girl. This was the one for me, the girl who had no idea about the incident in freshman year that we will never speak of again. The girl who would get to know me, the way most people didn't because when I was Harold's friend, they only cared about him, and when I severed all ties with him, I became even more invisible than before.

There was no doubt in my mind that _she_ was the one.

~X~

Of course, I wasn't the only person who thought so.

On the way to lunch, Harold was actually alone with Marcellus, which was a very rare occurrence. I overheard them talking about her and I was not following them, I just happened to walk directly behind them in an incredibly sneaky way.

"-and I've already decided that she's going to be my next girlfriend," Harold was saying, waving his hand as if getting dates were nothing. Well, to him, it was nothing.

"You're gonna try for _her_?" Marcellus asked, looking, as usual, confused.

"Why, you already got you eye on her?" he asked. "Not that it would hurt for you to stop being so serious about relationships and go out with someone new."

"No way, me and Ethel have practically been together since day care. I was just thinking that she doesn't seem like your type, you know? You tend to go for the ones who throw themselves at you, or the ones who'll jump in bed without a second thought. She's a bit…different than that, Doncha think?"

"That only makes things more interesting. Besides, she'll be eating out of my hand in no time, you just wait and see."

_No, no, no, not this time! She's mine! She's mine!_ I decided right then and there that no matter what he did, no matter how hard he tried to get her, I would be the one who emerged triumphant, _I _would show him once and for all who was the best. This would not be ruined for me.

I was going to get her, if only to get a bit of revenge on the one who had pretty much made my life miserable.  
**A/N: Short chapter, I know, but I was having such writer's block on this that it took me a long time to even get it to come out. I'm not going to give up on this story this early even if I'm more obsessed with Death Note right now.**

**By the way- let's all be fair and equal with these characters! I am the only person who writes fics other than about Harold and Marian and you know what? Other characters deserve love too! Yet I'm probably still going to be the only one…XD**

**So, remember, while your Marold-ing it up, Charlie and Marcellus and everyone else are very lonely and sad and feel left out.**

This rant DEFINITELY wasn't to make the word count go up, I swear.


End file.
